Posts about Family Travel
Last week I went to Venice and I saw a lot of things. Here are my favorites:
1. In Venice the streets are not streets. They are little passages, all stone. But the buildings are so tall that you need a helicopter to drive up in the sky to see were you are.
2. When I was in Venice I went on a sailboat/motorboat (it was a sailboat with a motor), which was cool. I liked the feeling of the boat rocking back and forth and my hair blowing in the wind. I also went on a bus boat (called a vaporetto in Italian) two times but I never got to go on a gondola because it was too expensive.
3. You can get sandwiches made in front of your eyes at this little corner shop and then eat on the side of the canal.
4. I also went to the Frari, and I saw a panting with this little boy in it. And when you walk from side to side of the staircase it looks like he is looking at you the whole time. Also, there were a lot of tombs. The creepiest tomb was the one for Canova that only had his heart inside! Why only his heart? Because so many churches wanted to bury him that they split him up, and the Frari got the heart.
Editor’s note: Cleo accompanied me (Paul) on a recent business trip to Venice and took a number of our walks, providing hands-on feedback about our Family Program there. The sandwich shop she mentions resides in Campo S. Barnaba, on the west side. In the Frari, the painting she mentions is the Madonna with Saints and Members of the Pesaro Family by Titian.
Posted by Cleo Bennett | This post has 4 comments
May 14th, 2012 under Family Travel, Venice.
The Greek debt crisis has drawn a lot of attention in the media in the past two years, and this has created some false impressionsabout the current situation on the ground. No doubt, many Greeks have turned to the streets to protest against largely unpopular austerity measures, and occasional violence has erupted. Does this make Greece a dangerous place? Not at all. Read more »
Posted by Georgia Sermamoglou-Soulmaid | This post has no comments
May 8th, 2012 under Athens, City Life, Family Travel, Travel News.
If you are lucky enough to visit London, you will probably be paying a visit to all its most important architectural landmarks, pubs, neighborhoods, shops, and of course a few museums. If traveling with kids or teenagers, the traditional art museum might not sound so appealing (to them), but fortunately for the kids, London is packed with extremely strange and fun museums. These unique museums are a great way to discover the more bizarre sides of London’s history, and to make your way to a few neighborhoods you probably wouldn’t have gone to otherwise. Read more »
Posted by Sophie | This post has 2 comments
April 10th, 2012 under City Life, Family Travel, London, Museums and Monuments, Uncategorized.
 We love Ostia Antica, the ancient port of Rome just 25 kilometers outside the city. Partly this is because it offers a sustainable alternative to Pompeii for people visiting Rome who may only have a few days to see the sights. Pompeii represents a loooong full-day investment (12 hrs) from Rome and involves lots of time on trains and/or cars. It’s much better visited from Naples. (And, we urge you to seriously consider a visit to Naples itself, staying in the city center. Check out our scholarship student’s take on this amazing city this year.)
Another reason we love Ostia is because it represents an outstanding example of a small, working-class Roman town, well preserved by millennia of river mud. (Pompeii was a little more artistocratic.)
I recently visited Ostia Antica on one of our tours there with my daughter Cleo and a friend and had a magical experience. With few crowds and plenty of warm, Roman sunshine, Cleo was transported back 2000 years. Here are several things that work well for kids at Ostia and make it the perfect place for the under 12 crowd to learn about ancient Rome:
Ruts in the Decumanus Maximus. The main road, or Decumanus Maximus, of Ostia is very well preserved. As we walked along it Livia, an archaeologist who was our guide, pointed out the ruts carved by wagon wheels over 500 years of use. This became a great game—Find the Rut—as we went along and got the kids thinking about traffic, commerce, and the kinds of things that would be coming in and out of this bustling port city.
Well in the Middle? At the end of the Decumanus Maximus there’s a well plopped down in the middle of the street. This was a curious site and led to all sorts of questions. Why would a well be dug in the middle of a street? How would wagons get around it. Turns out it was built in the medieval period when Ostia was in decline, as evidenced by the different stone work. This provided an excellent “play archaeologist” game for the girls.
When we stepped underground the girls gave a gasp.
Underground. The bath complexes at Ostia (there are several) offer a great opportunity to talk about hygiene and social interactions in ancient Roman cities. Since you can get into the under-floor hypocausts and walk in some of the furnace rooms, it’s also a great place to learn about Roman engineering and bath design. But, the best part was slipping underground into the subterranean drainage system. When Livia whipped out her flashlight to show us around a shiver went through the girls. Awesome!
Shop Mosaics. Personally, my favorite spot at Ostia is the Piazzale of the Corporations where shipping magnates set up their offices  and traded everything from grain to marbles coming into Rome from the far reaches of the empire. Why? Because, instead of hanging neon signs outside of their shops the shipping companies created fantastic black and white mosaics showing their wares. The best? Hands down, the exotic animal importer who commissioned a large elephant mosaic for the threshold to his office.
Context runs our Ostia tour regularly as a group or private tour. Although, not a technically set up as a “family tour” in our Family Program, we had one of the docents from that program develop a customized walk just for kids that worked exceptionally well. If your kids like ancient Rome and are curious about how people lived 2000 years ago, I heartily recommend heading to Ostia and taking this route.
Posted by Paul Bennett | This post has one comment
March 31st, 2012 under Archaeology, Family Travel, Rome.
Everyone has their favorite season for visiting New York City, but we think the early spring, when the trees and flowers are starting to bud and bloom, and before the heat sets in, is prime time for a weekend trip. If you already have a weekend booked, or are considering a last minute trip, here are some of our top activity picks you won’t want to miss.
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Posted by Carolyn | This post has 3 comments
March 15th, 2012 under Architecture, Art, Budget Conscious Travel, City Life, Culture, Family Travel, Food and Wine, History, Museums and Monuments, New York, Special Events, Uncategorized.
Last summer we had a client approach us with a new idea. She was spending nearly a month in Paris with her children and had heard about our Family Program of walks designed for kids and led by museum educators. We normally think of these as tours—one-off experiences that families enjoy during a visit. But what if, this client asked, she string together many of these—including a number of customized walks—into a kind of immersive, cultural summer camp. Wow, we thought, what a great idea. Read more »
Posted by Petulia | This post has 4 comments
February 14th, 2012 under Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Boston, Context Travel, Culture, Family Travel, Florence, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Naples, New York, Paris, Rome, Venice, Washington.
Traveling with kids is both challenging and rewarding. Unlike without kids, it cannot really be called relaxing or spontaneous, and hopefully won’t be too adventurous. However, here are a few of the benefits that might make it worth the trouble. It is a great way to spend time together away from their friends (and yours), work, school, TV and anything else that distracts you from each other. You can be an expert on something — or better yet, give them the tools to be the expert. All the rules can be abolished for the length of the trip. No need for bedtimes, screen-time limits, junk-food quotas. For the vacation, let it come naturally. Read more »
Posted by Lani | This post has 4 comments
February 2nd, 2012 under Family Travel, Uncategorized.
Neapolitan Nativity Figurines
One of the best things about being in Italy for the holidays, is soaking up all of the sights and smells. Â Italians love to decorate year-round, but really go all out during the holidays. Â Leave time for a passeggiata before or after dinner each night , the Christmas lights and nativity scenes are not to be missed! Â If you smell something delicious as you walk, stop to try it! Â Keep your eye out for chestnuts being roasted on street corners, mulled wine sold from kiosks, and wonderful cakes and pastries in the bakeries. Read more »
Posted by Liz | This post has 2 comments
December 12th, 2011 under City Life, Family Travel, Florence, Food and Wine, Naples, Rome, Special Events, Venice.
I hate to be a groaner about all the travel I get to do for my job. And mostly I feel gratitude whenever I am in one of our amazing cities. However, my travel is about experiencing the walks, meeting the docents, learning, studying, and documenting. All of which is a lot of fun, but also a lot like work. There are moments when I’m in transit that I tick off in my head what I would do with an empty day, and I confess there are a lot of shopping stops on that list. Here’s the top shops I would visit—and probably patronize—if I had that empty day (and full wallet) in Paris:
1. Chocolate. In the 6th there are a couple of my favorite places to buy chocolates: for gifts, for inspiration, for their artistry. Patrick Roger at 108 Boulevard Saint-Germain and Pierre Marcolini at 89 Rue Seine. I’m sure there are more and even better ones. Please add your ideas below.
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Posted by Lani | This post has 2 comments
December 6th, 2011 under Family Travel, Food and Wine, Paris, Shopping, Uncategorized.
Paris is a beautiful and magical place to spend the holidays. The streets are laced with glowing lights, Christmas markets serve up hot cider and delicious tartiflette and creative window displays entice shoppers looking for the perfect gifts or delicacy to enjoy over Christmas dinner. Here is a special idea to create your own Parisian version of the 12 days of Christmas:
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Posted by Lily | This post has no comments
November 14th, 2011 under Architecture, Art, City Life, Culture, Family Travel, Food and Wine, Music, Theater, and Dance, Paris, Shopping, Special Events, Uncategorized.
Last week I went to Venice and I saw a lot of things. Here are my favorites:
